Olympics Medal Count 2012: How Team USA Beat China

The United States will win the 2012 Olympics medal race, topping both the medal count and the official medal rankings. They did it with huge hauls in the two most rewarding disciplines of the Summer Games: swimming and track and field.

The U.S. ruled the pool, taking 31 medals from it on the back of performances from Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Dana Vollmer, and others. That’s the most any nation got from any sport in London, though it only narrowly outdid the second place performance: 29 medals by Team USA in track and field events.

Third-best in that accounting? Russia’s 18 track medals. China’s success in London was based on being well-rounded, as it got five medals or more from eight separate sports, though no more than the 10 it earned in diving and swimming. And host nation Great Britain broke into the top five in the second week of the Olympics because of strong cycling (12 medals) and rowing (nine) efforts.

But nothing really touches the 60 medals the U.S. got from those two sports. Taken together, U.S. track and swimming would be fourth in the medal count and medal rankings; on their own, U.S. swimming would be ninth and fifth, respectively, while track would be ninth and ninth.

Here is how the top five looks in the latest medal count:

For a complete breakdown, visit Sports Illustrated’s medal count tracker.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation’s London 2012 Olympics hub.